force be with you

People Worship at the Altar of Star Wars, and Not Just by Giving Money to Disney

Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Ready to get all Manichean in this liturgy? Photo: Lucasfilms

In honor of the release of The Force Awakens, a church in Berlin held a Star Wars–themed service, which is weird, but not as weird as some of the things people have done to honor Star Wars. According to Reuters, kids came to the church toting lightsabers, an organist played some of the franchise’s iconic soundtrack, and Ulrike Garve, a vicar-in-training (so basically a Padawan), opened the Protestant service with the line “The wait is over — the Force has awakened!” The Star Wars service played to a packed church, addressing the issue of good and evil and the importance of nonviolence. “The more we talked about it, the more parallels we discovered between Christian traditions and the movies,” said Garve, a fellow vicar-in-training. “We wanted to make churchgoers aware of these analogies.”

During the service, a screen next to the altar played a clip from The Empire Strikes back in which Luke tells Vader he will never join the Dark Side. Because when you are tempted by the Devil, the proper response is “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

A German Church Held a Star Wars Service